In this paper, we have investigated the room temperature photoluminescence spectra of Cu/Al nanoparticles coated ZnO nanorods for optoelectronic applications. Pulsed laser deposition technique was used to cote the metal nanoparticles on ZnO nanorods. We have done a detailed investigation on photoluminescence spectra of Cu/Al coated ZnO nanorods where we have observed significant enhancement of near band edge emission and remarkable suppression of deep level emission. Such enhancement of near band edge emission and suppression of deep level emission might be due to the arise of several physical consequences, such as exciton–plasmon coupling, hot carrier formation, defect passivation and enhanced electric field at metal (Cu/Al)-semiconductor (ZnO) junction. We have observed ∼7.6 times and ∼ 2 times near band edge emission enhancements in Cu and Al coated ZnO nanorods, respectively. Further, a planar type photodetector device was fabricated by using pure Cu as a planar electrode on top of the metal coated ZnO nanorods. We have studied the value of currents in Cu/Al coated ZnO nanorods compared to the pristine ZnO nanorods at dark and UV illumination conditions. We have observed that the current value of Cu coated ZnO nanorods increases nearly 4 orders higher in magnitude in comparison to the pristine ZnO nanorods under UV illumination. However, the value of current in Al coated ZnO nanorods increases little less i.e. ∼3 orders higher in magnitude in comparison to the pristine ZnO under UV illumination condition. Hence, Cu/Al coated ZnO nanorods could be a potential candidate for the UV light sensing. Furthermore, we can claim that Cu/Al coated ZnO nanorods is a promising alternative towards the development of earth abundant metal based stable and efficient nano-plasmonic devices.

在本文中，我们研究了用于光电应用的 Cu/Al 纳米颗粒包覆的 ZnO 纳米棒的室温光致发光光谱。使用脉冲激光沉积技术将金属纳米颗粒涂覆在 ZnO 纳米棒上。我们对 Cu/Al 涂层 ZnO 纳米棒的光致发光光谱进行了详细研究，我们观察到近带边缘发射的显着增强和深能级发射的显着抑制。近带边缘发射的这种增强和深能级发射的抑制可能是由于几种物理后果的出现，例如激子-等离子体耦合、热载流子形成、缺陷钝化和金属 (Cu/Al)-半导体上的电场增强(ZnO) 结。我们已经观察到~7。Cu 和 Al 包覆的 ZnO 纳米棒的近带边发射增强分别为 6 倍和 2 倍。此外，通过在金属包覆的 ZnO 纳米棒顶部使用纯铜作为平面电极来制造平面型光电探测器装置。我们研究了在黑暗和紫外线照射条件下，与原始 ZnO 纳米棒相比，Cu/Al 涂层 ZnO 纳米棒中的电流值。我们已经观察到，与紫外线照射下的原始 ZnO 纳米棒相比，Cu 涂层的 ZnO 纳米棒的电流值增加了近 4 个数量级。然而，在紫外线照射条件下，与原始 ZnO 相比，Al 涂覆的 ZnO 纳米棒中的电流值增加了一点点，即在数量级上高出~3 个数量级。因此，Cu/Al 涂层的 ZnO 纳米棒可能是紫外光传感的潜在候选者。此外，